The present invention relates to a mixer apparatus, and method and program for changing parameter settings of input channels or output channels in the mixer apparatus.
Digital mixers have been known which convert an analog audio signal, input for each of a plurality of input channels, into a digital signal and then perform mixing processing on the converted digital signals. In these digital mixers, each of signals input via a plurality of input terminals is allocated to any desired input channel of a predetermined plurality of input-system (or input-side) channels, characteristics and level of the digital signal input to the input channel is adjusted on the basis of various parameters set for that channel, and the thus-adjusted signal is delivered to a desired mixing bus. The mixing bus mixes the signals supplied from the individual input channels and outputs the mixed signals to output-system (or output-side) channels corresponding to the mixing bus. Each of the output-system channels adjusts characteristics and level of the supplied digital signal and outputs the thus-adjusted signal to outside the mixer. Various signal processing, such as the characteristic adjustment and level adjustment (sound volume control), equalizing and mixing processing, of the digital audio signal is carried out by a digital signal processing device (DSP). User of each of these conventional digital audio mixers can manually perform various operation related to the various signal processing, parameter setting operation, etc. using various physical operators, graphical user interface (GUI) of a display device, such as an LCD, provided on an operation panel (or mixing console). Values corresponding to the various operation performed by the user are set in the DSP as parameters for signal processing to be performed. Among examples of such digital audio mixers is a digital mixer commercially available from the assignee of the instant application under a product name “PM5D” (see, for example, a website “http//www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/japan/mixers/PM5DJ1.pdf” (hereinafter referred to as “non-patent literature”).
In the digital mixer disclosed in the above-identified non-patent literature, information indicative of settings of various parameters of a given channel can be copied and then pasted into another channel of the same channel type. More specifically, the user can copy, into a buffer memory, information indicative of settings of various parameters of a currently-selected channel (i.e., copied-from channel or copy source channel) and designate, as a pasted-to channel (or paste destination channel), a desired channel of the same channel type as the copy source channel, so that the parameter settings copied into the buffer memory can be pasted into the designated channel. Further, in the disclosed digital mixer, the user can select any desired kind of parameter for copying and pasting. In the paste destination channel, the previous setting of the parameter is overwritten with the pasted setting of the parameter.
However, when information of a given channel is to be transferred and inserted into a location of another channel in the digital mixer disclosed in the above-identified non-patent literature, the user has to perform operation for writing the parameter setting(s) of the copy source channel (or inserted-from channel) into the insertion destination channel (or inserted-to channel) after performing operation for sequentially shifting, by one channel, the parameter settings of all of the other channels than the copy source channel (i.e., channels located intermediate between the copy source channel and the insertion destination channel as well as the insertion destination channel, to respective adjoining channels through repetition of copy-and-paste operation.